Dr. Çetiner’s Blogs (Dr. Beytullah Gültekin Çetiner)

Constitutional Court Decision for AKP

The Constitutional Court Decision for AKP came yesterday.
The Constitutional Court unanimously decided to hear the case against the AK Party on charges that the ruling party of Turkey has been involved in anti-secularist activities and has followed a fundamentalist agenda. The party risks closure and its senior members including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan risk a five year political ban.

Some people in Turkey are trying to portray the case as a normal judicial act which may or may not result in the closure of the party. They say the legal system is now at work and we have to trust the independence of the judiciary.

We beg to differ especially after seeing the attitudes of some supreme court judges who seem to be bent on closing down the party.

These are the very same judges who last year in May decided to annul the elections of the new president claiming the parliament needed a quorum of 367 deputies to even open the sessions to elect the head of state whereas this was later regarded as a judicial scandal.

Now the same judges all appointed by the former president Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Monday decided that while the Supreme Court should hear the case against the AK Party President Abdullah Gul should also be brought to trial for his alleged anti-secular activities when he was foreign minister in the AK Party government. Four judges rejected to bring Gul to trial saying the president can only be trial for treason. But the seven judges seem determined to go put of their way and eventually vote to closedown the AK Party. So the months ahead may well be a mere formality for these judges.

He only option left for the AK Party is to change the rules at his late stage and make it impossible for the court to closedown the party. So they too have to bend and twist the rules like others are doing to closedown AK Party.

Democracy is taking a heavy beating as some people seem set to erase the ruling party of Turkey from the map and AK party trying to survive.

Judicial System in Turkey

Judicial System in Turkey is struggling for reliability nowadays more than ever due to closure case, or indictment against AKP. Many of the polls in Turkey shows that majority of people in Turkey do not rely on Judiciary*. A recent criticism came from European Parliament member Ria Oomen-Ruijten regarding Judicial System in Turkey.
Christian Democrat MEP Ria Oomen-Ruijten said Thursday there is no judiciary in Turkey that every one can rely on.

“Turkey needs to work on this matter,” Oomen-Ruijten, who is also Turkey rapporteur of the European Parliament (EP), said during a meeting at the External Relations Committee of the EP in which MEPs discussed a draft report on Turkey.

Oomen-Ruijten said Turkish parliament decided to free headscarf in universities with two-third majority but this decision cannot be implemented. “I do not know any other country like this. I am for the independence of the judiciary but there is no judiciary in Turkey that every one can rely on,” she said.

Oomen-Ruijten also said she is totally against the closure of the Justice and Development (AK) Party and the Democratic Society Party (DTP).

“This problem can be overcome by making rapid reforms concerning the judiciary,” she stressed.

On the other hand, Joost Lagendijk, the co-chair of Turkey- EU Joint Parliament Committee, said judiciary considers ‘wrong” the preference of majority of the nation and this is unacceptable. Lagendijk said the EU should strongly ask for a judicial reform in Turkey.

The draft report recommends Turkey to provide a large participation of NGOs in efforts to prepare a new constitution, and asks Turkey to amend the Article 301 of TCK as soon as possible.

Condemning the acts of the terrorist organization PKK, the draft asks the PKK to lay down arms without any precondition.

The draft calls on Iraqi government and the regional administration in Iraq not to “allow PKK to use its territories as a base for terrorist attacks against Turkey.”

On Cyprus problem, the draft report says that a comprehensive solution should be found under the auspices of the UN.

The report does not touch on Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915, and calls on the European Commission and Turkey to launch negotiations on a visa simplification agreement.

The EP is expected to vote the report in a plenary session in May.

It is obvious that Turkey should make a political reforms regarding Judicial System. Political reforms are seen by Turkish people as a necessity not because European Union wantstowards Accession to Europe.

* In the law, the judiciary or judicial system is the system of courts which administer justice in the name of the sovereign or state, a mechanism for the resolution of disputes.

The term is also used to refer collectively to the judges, magistrates and other adjudicators who form the core of a judiciary, as well as the support personnel who keep the system running smoothly. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the judiciary is the branch of government primarily responsible for interpreting the law. It is the level that makes laws.